


So Long, My Friend and Adversary

by akiiteru



Category: Free!, Free! Iwatobi Swim Club - Fandom
Genre: Battle Royale AU, Implied Relationships, Minor Character Death, also rintori, i will attempt to have this finished by the end of the week!, if you haven't watched Battle Royale YOU REALLY SHOULD IT'S AMAZING, mainly makoharu reigisa and some rinharu too if you squint, the winner isn't revealed until the very last sentence because im a little shit, yeah there's a lot of death im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-19
Updated: 2013-11-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 01:16:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akiiteru/pseuds/akiiteru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"We've got the right to live, fight to use it</i><br/><i>Got everything but you can just choose it</i><br/><i>I won't just be a puppet on a string"</i><br/> </p><p>Free! characters in the Battle Royale universe! The government now enforces a law that, once a year, a high school class will be picked to get shipped off to a deserted island and kill each other until only one is left. Friendships will be demolished, blood will be shed, and trust will be long forgotten. How will our favorite swimmers face up against their least likely enemy... each other?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> let's just pretend that everyone is in the same class...

**Day One**  
 _Chosen: class A of Iwatobi High School._

The room was silent, save for the bubbly voice coming from the instructional video. 

"Now I will call each of your names, and you will come up and get a bag."

The first name was called. A furtive boy stood and walked towards the exit of the drab building. He caught the bag being thrown towards him, his small frame swaying with the weight of it. Then he was off into the night outside, feet pounding against the concrete floor. 

Then the first girl was called. She did the same as the boy before her, though more confidently. Her bag was thrown and she caught it securely, running out of the building. 

The names continued to blare through the room. "Boy number two, Nitori Aiichiro."

A watery-eyed youth with cropped, silver hair let out a sharp cry. He stood shakily, and hesitated before walking to get his bag. Before he left, he turned and looked at his classmates with tearful blue eyes. Not one other student met his gaze. 

"Boy number five, Hazuki Nagisa," the cheerful voice of the projection said. 

A hysterical blond loosened his grip on the shoulders of another, taller boy and stood. His cherubic face was streaked with tears. 

The boy he had been clinging to cried out suddenly. "Wait for me!"

"Hurry up," the gruff voice of one of the soldiers sounded. He threw a bag at the blond with nearly enough force to knock him over, but the boy stayed on his feet and rushed out of the building. 

The names continued to be called, prompting more tears. As the room emptied, the tension heightened. 

"Boy number nine, Matsuoka Rin."

The boy who approached the soldiers was tall and frightening, eyebrows arched and mouth curved into a sinister smirk. He caught his bag easily and took off running.

"Girl number ten, Matsuoka Gou."

A girl who looked very similar to boy number nine stood, her gaze steely. She caught her bag, and though she stumbled, acted confidently. There was a flash of doubt in her eyes as she looked back at her classmates. 

"Boy number ten, Nanase Haruka."

A hushed gasp echoed through the room. A boy with piercing blue eyes stood, his hand still clasped with one of a gentle-looking brunet. The two boys exchanged frantic whispering. Then their hands separated and the boy named Haruka took his leave. 

The names kept going, hope flowing out of the students as the cheerful voice from the screen progressed.

"Boy number twelve, Ryugazaki Rei."

"Boy number fourteen, Mikoshiba Seijuurou."

"Girl number fifteen, Hanamura Chigusa."

"Boy number fifteen, Tachibana Makoto."

Finally, the last student left the room. 

The Battle Royale had begun. 

\- - -

Haruka was crouching behind a bush, waiting for his best friend. He wanted more than anything to trust his classmates, but the look on some of their faces made him shiver. He hoped to retrieve Makoto and hightail it out of the forest, where the most kills would occur that night.

The moment Makoto's tall form appeared in the moonlight, Haruka darted out from his hiding place and grabbed the brunet's hand. 

Makoto flinched, but Haruka's recognizable blue eyes calmed him and he squeezed his hand reassuringly. They ran off together, getting as far from the grey building they'd come from as possible. 

 

The moment Nagisa saw Rei emerging from the building, he burst into tears. Rei met him with an embrace, surprising the shorter boy. 

The gentle moment was cut short by the sound of gunshots. Rei and Nagisa dived into the brush for cover, holding each other tightly.

The source of the shooting came into view; it was the Matsuoka boy, with his sister trailing behind nervously. They had been extremely lucky, both getting handguns in their bags. The Matsuoka girl seemed to have little interest in using hers, though her finger was on the trigger anyway. 

Rei stifled a sneeze, trying to keep completely still as the red-haired siblings walked by without acknowledging the boys hidden in the bushes. 

 

The sound of increasingly loud footsteps startled Rin, who turned around and began shooting. The limp body of a light-haired girl fell at the edge of the forest, a long knife skittering across the ground and ending up at the Matsuokas' feet. Gou picked it up nervously and stuffed it in her bag. 

The siblings continued on at the edge of the building, searching for targets.

**Dead- girl #15 Hanamura Chigusa  
** **29 left.**  
\- - -


	2. Will You Wait for Me Now?

Haruka and Makoto didn't stop running until they reached the rocky cliffs at the top of the island. There, they sat and watched the sun rising slowly. The ocean provided gentle background noise, though the occasional gunshot in the distance was still apparent.

Makoto looked through his bag in the faint light of the sunrise, finding only a pair of scissors. Haruka's bag, however, contained a knife with a curved blade that tapered to a wicked point. 

"Do you want to use it, Haru?" Makoto asked, fidgeting with the handle of the knife. 

"No," was Haruka's immediate response.

"We'd better keep it, in case we need to defend ourselves," Makoto said quietly. Haruka didn't object.

\- - -

"Come out of the house!" Rin's harsh voice called out. He held his gun pointed straight at the door of the building in front of him. Gou, standing behind him, held her gun up as well, hands shaking. 

The doorknob shook for a moment, and the door creaked open a crack. Rin let his finger drift to the trigger, but he recognized the face within the house and lowered his gun. 

"M-Matsuoka-senpai...?" Nitori whimpered from behind the door. "You're not going to shoot me?"

Rin sighed, approaching the house. "No. Could you let me in?"

The door was opened for him immediately. Nitori let out a piercing screech at the sight of Rin. 

"MATSUOKA-SENPAI, YOU'RE HURT!"

"Yeah, a bit," Rin groaned, hurrying inside with Gou right behind him. A strip of cloth stained red was tied tightly around Rin's forearm, where a deep gash marred the skin. Nitori fawned over him, supplying a bandage that he found within the house. Gou, though unhurt, was worried over as well. 

Rin checked Nitori's bag, and found a short metal pipe with jagged edges. The silver-haired boy had no intention of using it, so Rin put it in his own bag.

"What happened to you, senpai?" Nitori asked. 

"It was Seijuurou, dammit," Rin growled. "He just jumped us so suddenly, I felt his knife on my arm and I started shooting blindly. It's really too bad, he could have been a good ally."

Nitori's eyes widened. "You killed Mikoshiba-senpai?"

Rin ran a hand through his messy hair. "That's the point of all of this, Ai. He would get us if we didn't get him. Remember, only one of us gets out of this alive, and I'll be damned if it isn't me. But I won't kill you, or my sister, somebody else will surely off you guys. All you can hope for is a relatively painless death, am I right?"

At that point, Nitori was sobbing. "I don't want to die, senpai."

**Dead- boy #14 Mikoshiba Seijuurou**  
 **24 left.**  
\- - -

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the briefness of this! i wanted there to be a new chapter every time somebody died, so this one ended up quite short.


	3. I Want What's Better for You

The first announcement began. The names of the dead and forbidden zones were listed off. Six had died since the battle began. 

Nagisa sighed with relief when the names of his best friends were not called. 

"Haru-chan, Mako-chan, Gou-chan, and Rin-chan are okay," he said to Rei, relaxing a bit. They were taking shelter in a restaurant. Their weapons, a crossbow and a large metal bowl, were on a table, unused. 

Rei had been silent since the game had begun. Finally, he spoke. 

"We're going to die."

"Rei-chan..." Nagisa sighed, trailing off. 

Rei looked at Nagisa over the rims of his glasses. "The odds are immense that you and I will both die. If not, one of us will survive without the other."

Nagisa stood in silence, fidgeting with the collar at his throat. 

\- - -

"We should find Nagisa and Rei," Makoto commented to Haruka. The latter nodded. He wished to add _'If they're not dead already.'_ but decided it was too gruesome a thought.

"This place might become a danger zone soon, so the sooner we find them the better," Haruka muttered. His taller friend nodded in agreement. 

As they gathered up their things and shoved them into their bags, the announcements began, and the names of the dead were called. One of them made Makoto cringe.

"Mikoshiba Seijuurou, wasn't he a friend of Gou's?"

Haruka nodded somberly. The impact of their situation was finally setting in. 

A piercing shriek from somewhere beyond the near forest startled both of the boys.

Makoto shivered nervously. "Maybe we should stay here a bit longer. It seems safe; we're hidden by all of the rocks. Rei and Nagisa could find us here, possibly. And Rin, too, if..."

 _If he decides not to kill us,_ Haruka thought. _If he doesn't look at you in disgust because you're so weak, hiding away from him instead of trying to win._ Haruka's thoughts seemed to scream at him, and he strained to listen to what Makoto was saying. The brunet's gentle voice calmed him, though, and eventually his hands stopped shaking violently.

\- - -  
 **Day 2**

When Nitori awoke in the early morning after a fitful sleep, Rin and Gou were gone. To the surprise of the blue-eyed boy, they left a gun with him. A note was carved into the table beside it, presumably by a knife. 

_Protect yourself._

A loud crash from outside scared Nitori, who grabbed the gun and pointed it at the door. It was flung open immediately, and a tall boy stumbled inside. He was holding nothing but a metal bowl with two holes ripped through it, and blood was splattered across the left lens of his red-framed glasses. Nitori dropped his gun.

"You're... Ryugazaki Rei. A swimmer, right?”

The boy nodded, his violet eyes flicking nervously side-to-side as he searched the room. 

“There’s nobody else here, just me. What happened to you?” Nitori tried to sound comforting, but Rei still clutched the bowl to his chest like a shield.

After a moment of tense silence, Rei spoke.

“We were attacked. ‘We’ as in Nagisa-kun and me. We saw a group of girls and we were trying to convince them that we weren’t going to hurt them, but then the gunshots started and all of them were killed. Nagisa had his crossbow and shot one of the attackers before we could see who they were at the time. There was too much gunfire and blood-“ he let out a choked sob. “Nagisa-kun fell and I ran away, and the person attacking us didn’t chase me. I wasn’t sure why until some of the smoke from the gunpowder cleared… it was Rin-san and Gou-kun. Nagisa killed…” he made a strangled noise, and Nitori yelped.

“Matsuoka-senpai…?”

“No. He killed Gou-kun. And… and Rin-san k-killed Nagisa-kun. He had a knife th-through his back.” Rei’s knees shook and then gave out, and he sank to the floor. 

Nitori stumbled over to Rei’s limp form. He was relieved to find that Rei was breathing normally, and assumed it was a stress faint. Nitori felt light-headed himself, after hearing about the events that had happened.

 **Dead- girl #10 Matsuoka Gou, boy #5 Hazuki Nagisa  
** **18 left.**  
\- - -

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry ;~;


	4. Yelling No More

Rin was bent double, panting. Blood coated half of his face, blinding him in one eye. Bodies littered the ground around him, the exact number unclear. Time was running out for him, and the amount of corpses on the shore beneath the lighthouse reassured him that he could win. 

It was a group suicide, he assumed. He counted 7 bodies sprawled across the rocks. None of which were his friends. 

A small cry alerted him to the girl standing atop the lighthouse. She was looking over the edge, body shivering with fright. 

Rin grimaced in disgust. The girl was too much of a coward to jump, he guessed. 

The distance between them was far. He shot anyway. The bullet hit the girl’s leg and it buckled, causing her to fall. Rin looked away, but he still heard the sickening crunch of shattering bone.

**10 left.**  
\- - -

When Nagisa’s and Gou’s names were mentioned in the announcement of the dead, Makoto could do nothing but hug his knees and stare out at the ocean. 

It was just the second day of the horrific experience, and two of his best friends were dead. 

“What do you think happened to Rei?” Haruka asked aloud. 

Makoto shook his head. “He must be devastated.”

The two boys sat together, watching the rough waves of the sea. They crashed against the cliffs, producing a soothing rhythm. Suddenly, Haruka tensed.

“Wait a minute. Check your map.”

Makoto did so, and scrambled to get up. “We’re in a danger zone,” he said frantically. Haruka got up as well, grabbed his bag, and ran off after Makoto towards the abandoned town. 

As they reached the mouth of the forest between them and the sheltering buildings, an attack came out of nowhere. It was a single boy, his light hair streaked with blood. His right hand was wrapped tightly around the handle of a sword. He thrust it immediately towards Haruka, who stumbled backwards and narrowly missed the tip of the blade. He crawled rapidly backward, barely avoiding the boy’s stabs. 

Makoto, however, was paralyzed. He couldn’t make his body move, no matter how hard he tried. Finally, with a push of adrenaline, he managed to pick up his bag and dig through it, searching for his weapon.

Haruka felt his back hit a tree and the boy attacking him had him cornered. Right as Haruka was prepared to give up, the boy dropped the sword and slumped over on top of Haruka. The dark-haired teen pushed the body off of him and looked up. Makoto’s entire body was shaking. The knife from Haruka’s bag was stuck in the back of the light-haired boy’s head.

“Thank you,” Haruka muttered. 

**9 left.**  
\- - -

The afternoon of the second day was a bloodbath. Suicides and killings occurred all across the island. By the second announcement of the day, only 5 teenagers remained.

Nitori and Rei had formed a shaky alliance, since both of them claimed inability to kill. 

“We can’t hide in here forever, you know,” Rei commented that evening. “If we’re both still alive by tomorrow, the necklaces will explode and we’ll both die.”

Nitori refused to respond to his statement. Instead, he walked to the window and looked outside nervously.

“I think I should go find Matsuoka-senpai,” Nitori proclaimed. 

“And I should seek out Haruka-senpai.” Rei stood and walked to the window beside Nitori. 

“Should we leave together?” Nitori asked.

Rei shook his head. “We should leave separately, so if one of us is attacked, the other is safe.”

Rei made a compelling point. The two boys decided which one of them would leave first, and then that the other would wait an hour to make sure it was clear outside before leaving.

\- - -

Meanwhile, Rin was getting desperate. The wound on his arm had become infected, and he began to doubt that he would survive much longer. He cringed at the thought of killing his friends, but it had to be done.

Rin approached the building he knew Nitori was inside. It pained him to think about what he was going to do. 

He took a grenade that he found inside the bag of another dead student and pulled the pin, tossing it through and shattering a window. He ran quickly and stood about fifty feet away, watching. After a few moments of almost unbearable silence, the building exploded with an ear-shattering ‘boom.’ Rin, despite the distance he had run, was thrown backwards by the sheer force of the explosion. He felt his head smack against a tree, and he crumpled to the ground. Blood poured from a wound on his forehead, and the impact against the trunk made him see stars. For a second, he thought he was going to die, but he gathered up the energy to stand and survey the damage. The building had been annihilated. Rin was confident that nobody survived.

Unknown to him, however, one of the two people dwelling in the house had attempted to leave, and it was no longer apparent how many corpses remained decimated beneath the rubble.

**? left.**  
\- - -  
 **Day 3**

Makoto awoke with a start. For a few moments, he forgot where he was, but then the memories came flooding back to him. They were sheltered in a house, avoiding Rin.

“…and those complete the announcements for this hour. Stay safe!” a voice echoed across the island. Makoto gasped and leaned over to the other bed, where Haruka was sleeping. He shook him urgently. 

“Haru, wake up! Please!”

Haruka’s eyes fluttered open. He saw the panic in Makoto’s eyes and mirrored it on his own face. “What happened?”

“We slept through the announcements,” Makoto fretted. “We can’t know who’s dead, or what the danger zones are. We have to…” he trailed off, completely lost. 

The situation seemed hopeless. Haruka finally vocalized what he had been thinking since the game began. “We have to find Rin.”

It took far too long to convince Makoto to leave the house. He was scared of Rin, Haruka could see that, but it was most likely their only hope to survive. That, or Rin would kill them immediately upon sight and win. 

“What about Rei? And Nitori? Shouldn’t we find them first…?” Makoto worried. But Haruka was insistant, and the two teens ended up trekking through the forest in search of their red-haired friend. 

\- - -

Rin leaned against the cold, concrete building, breathing heavily. He could barely stand, let alone walk, and his right eye was deemed useless by the dried blood coating it. His only chance, he realized, was if Haruka and Makoto showed up and surrendered. It seemed ridiculous, but he wouldn’t put it past them. They were weak, and by Rin’s assumption, unable to kill. When the rustling of leaves alerted him to their presence in the forest before him, he was nearly incredulous.

“Haru? Makoto?” Rin mused. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Haruka’s gaze was steely. “We’re here to talk to you. And reason with you.”

Rin laughed weakly. “I can’t be reasoned with anymore.”

He lifted his gun and pulled the trigger.

Haruka felt blood splatter across the side of his face, and Makoto went limp against his shoulder. The brunet fell backward, making a soft ‘thud’ as his back hit the ground.

“I’m going to win,” Rin croaked. “You don’t have any weapons.” He had slid down the wall and was now sitting, on the last legs of his life.

“You’re dying, Rin,” Haruka pleaded. “If you shoot me, nobody will survive.”

“It’s t-too late to b-beg for your life. You… can’t-“ Rin choked out. “You can’t win. If I don’t live…” His finger pulled back against the trigger. “Nobody will.”

Haruka’s body jerked backwards and slumped to the ground. 

Something rustled in the bushes behind Rin, but he didn’t have the energy to turn around. _It’s probably the soldiers, coming to tell me that I won_ , he thought to himself. His body convulsed violently, and he couldn’t muster any more energy as the life flowed from his body.

**Dead- boy #15 Tachibana Makoto, boy #10 Nanase Haruka, boy #9 Matsuoka Rin**  
 **? left**  
\- - -

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the winner (if there is one...?) will be announced next chapter! thank you for reading this far, i'd really appreciate it if you'd comment telling me what you think so far!


	5. Victorious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...and our victor is announced! This is the final chapter, I hope you guys enjoyed it! It's reeeeeeeeally short, because the sole purpose of this chapter is to announce the winner. Thank you to everyone who awaited this :D

The fearful victor stepped out of the car and into the crowd of photographers and reporters. One of them pushed her way to the front of the crowd and shoved a microphone into the teen’s face.

“Congratulations on surviving the Battle Royale! What are your thoughts on winning?”

The sole survivor gave a weak smile. “I am very glad.”

“There you have it,” the reporter shouted at the camera that was trained on her. “Straight from the mouth of the victor! Let us congratulate the winner of the 60th annual Battle Royale, Aiichiro Nitori!”

**DEAD  
boy #5 Hazuki Nagisa: stabbing  
boy #9 Matsuoka Rin: fatal injuries  
boy #10 Nanase Haruka: shooting  
girl #10 Matsuoka Gou: shooting by crossbow   
boy #12 Ryugazaki Rei: explosion  
boy #14 Mikoshiba Seijuurou: shooting  
boy #15 Tachibana Makoto: shooting  
girl #15 Hanamura Chigusa: shooting  
1 left.**  
\- - -


End file.
